[1012] Cf. vol. ii, p. 408.
[1013] Cf. Gosson, S.A. 39 (App. C, No. xxii), 'the very hyrelings of some of our players, which stand at reuersion of vi s by the weeke'; Dekker, News from Hell (Works, ii. 146), 'a companie of country players, being nine in number, one sharer, & the rest iornymen'; The Raven's Almanac (iv. 193), 'a number of you (especially the hirelings) shall be with emptie purses at least twice a week'; Jests to Make you Merrie (ii. 353), 'Nay, you mercenary soldiers, or you that are as the Switzers to players (I meane the hired men) by all the prognostications that I haue seene this yeare, you make but a hard and a hungry liuing of it by strowting [? 'strowling'] up and downe after the waggon. Leaue therefore, O leaue the company of such as lick the fat from your beards (if you haue any) and come hether, for here I know you shall be sharers'.
[1014] Cf. Chapman, May Day, III. iii. 228, 'Afore heaven, 'tis a sweet fac'd child: methinks he would show well in woman's attire.... I'll help thee to three crownes a week for him, and she can act well'. The will of Augustine Phillips in 1605 mentions his apprentice James Sands, and his late apprentice, Samuel Gilburne. The 'boys' of various Admiral's men appear in Henslowe's diary and in the Dulwich 'plots' of plays; cf. Henslowe, i. 71, 73, 'Thomas Dowtones biger boy'; Henslowe Papers, 137, 138, 142, 147, 'E. Dutton his boye', 'Mʳ. Allens boy', 'Mʳ. Townes boy', 'Mʳ. Jones his boy', 'Mʳ. Denygtens little boy'.
[1015] Henslowe, i. 201; Henslowe Papers, 48. There is also a contract by which Thomas Downton of the Admiral's men hires an unnamed player (Henslowe, i. 40). Augustine Phillips (1605) calls Christopher Beeston his 'servant', and Nicholas Tooley (1623) calls Richard Burbadge, then deceased, his 'late master'. But Beeston and Tooley were King's men by patent before the dates in question, and it is a little difficult, though not impossible, to suppose that a hireling would appear in a patent. Probably the terms only retain the memory of former apprenticeships.
[1016] Henslowe, ii. 120.
[1017] The diary records loans to Jonson, Chapman, Porter, Chettle, Day, Haughton, Munday, Dekker, Anthony Wadeson, and Robert Wilson, and to the actors Martin Slater, John Singer, Thomas Towne, Edward Dutton, Robert Shaw, Thomas Downton, William Borne, John Helle, Gabriel Spencer, Richard Alleyn, John Tomson, Humphrey Jeffes, Anthony Jeffes, Richard Jones, Charles Massey, John Duke, Richard Bradshaw, Thomas Heywood, William Kempe, Thomas Blackwood, John Lowin, Abraham Savery, Richard Perkins; as well as to Henslowe's nephew, Francis Henslowe. Except Francis Henslowe and Abraham Savery, of the Queen's men, and John Tomson, of whom nothing is known, all these men are traceable in connexion with either the Admiral's or Worcester's men. A few of the loans to poets, e.g. to Chettle, seem to have been on behalf of the Admiral's men, rather than of Henslowe himself.
[1018] Henslowe, i. 47, 63, 67, 'Rᵈ. of Bengemenes Johnsones share as ffoloweth'; 'Rᵈ. of Gabrell Spencer at severall tymes of his share in the gallereyes as foloweth'; 'A juste acownte of the money which I haue receued of Humfreye Jeaffes hallffe sheare ... as foloweth.... This some was payd backe agayne vnto the companey of my lord admeralles players ... & they shared yt amonste them'. In such cases Henslowe may merely have acted as agent of the company in securing the payment out of gallery money of sums due from incoming sharers.
[1019] Henslowe Papers, 18, 23, 86, 111, 123; cf. ch. xiii (Lady Elizabeth's).
[1020] Cf. p. 375.
[1021] Henslowe, ii. 19.